On the other hand, it's not so fun to keep doing the same themes over and over again (the ones everyone has pictures for), so I don't know what the middle ground is.

I've collected together theme suggestions from other photography forums. If we went through these one at a time, we'd have enough different themes for about 5 years. But perhaps these ideas might trigger additional ideas as well ... and there could be a lot more ...

5 minutes from home / 1 km from home

a look in the pantry

abstract

animals

archways

around the house

backlit

beach detail/beach macro

books

bridges

churches

circles

clouds

colour green, colour blue, colour yellow, colour _____

coming of summer

cool

different perspective (i.e. shooting the photo from an unusual perspective)

divided

flowers

food

forest

friendship

fruit

fungi

golden hour

home

horizontal lines

hot

human form

in the kitchen

industry

inside looking out

joy

long exposure

modern architecture

must include ... a specific but common object. Not sure what, maybe a pen, salt shaker, jacket, shoes ... The object could appear in any setting but must not be the main focus of the photo. I'm thinking of those puzzles where you have to locate certain objects within a picture.

old architecture

patterns

rain

reflections

religion

rural life

shadows

signs

silhouettes

something new

something old

something old and something new together in the same photo

still life

sunrise/sunset

technology

teeth

textures

tracks

trails and paths

transparent

transportation

triangles

vertical lines

water

what’s in the shed/garage

Remember ... if you don't have a photo for a particular theme in your existing photo collection ... you can always go out and take one.

Quiet nights
Indoor lights
An object close at hand
Favourite places
Finding faces (i.e. not human or animal … faces in trees, grills of cars, building facades, etc.)
Symbol of a distant land
Towering trees
Buzzing bees
Outside looking in
Paper and pens
Shaded glens
Someone with a grin
From a song
Something strong
What does courage mean to you
Latest fashion
What’s your passion
Marvelous fantastic view
Welcoming door
From the floor (as in, if you laid down on the floor and took a photo from that perspective)
Sculpture in the park
Back to school
Choose your tool
It only takes a spark

More Themes

Abandoned dilapidated houses and barns
Artificial lighting … using a flash or other indoor lighting
Black and white
Book Titles … perhaps from a specific author (i.e. Shakespeare)
Bubbles
Campground/Camping
Clichés
Collections
Contrasts
Famous Quotes
Fences and/or Gates
Gardens and Gardening
Jewellery
Juxtaposition
Letters or Numbers … focussing in on an individual letter or number on a sign, on food packaging, etc.
Lines
Local Landmarks
Market
Mimic the style of your favourite photographer
Monochrome … all one colour, not necessarily black & white
Movie Titles … perhaps from a specific genre or series (i.e. James Bond Movies)
Moving
Music
Natural lighting
On a Walk
On the Ground
Ornaments
Panoramic
Parallel Lines
Piles of Things
Round
Rows of Things
Self portrait
Shallow depth of field
Shoes
Soft
Stormy Weather
Street Murals or Graffiti
Toys
Trains
Travel
Up In the Sky
Wind
Work

If you all especially like any of these themes, or if you can think of any I haven’t mentioned, let us all know. It’ll give us an idea what sort of themes to choose to keep the interest.

If you’re stuck for inspiration for photos to meet a particular theme, use Google to look up desktop wallpapers in that theme. Chances are there will be heaps of photos and other artwork that might spark some ideas you can try to recreate in your own photos. Some of those desktop wallpapers are really good.

And what about a personal invitation to everyone who listed “photography” as their hobby in this thread to join the monthly photography thread? Maybe we’d get more than a dozen people posting photos.

I haven't been posting lately, but occasionally check out what's happening in Foo. The photography contest is one of the threads I check out, more that others ... except for Jsharr's B'day bass fish posts of course. Personally I like the monthly format ... or the 3 week format that Machka proposed. Keeping it shorter will keep people more engaged. I like the winners picking the theme, and foosters voting for their favourite 3. If we go to voting in a poll (anonymously), then if I'm right our only choices will be to pick one winner, or have the option to choose as many as people want. I don't think the poll can be limited to choosing just 3. You could PM your votes to a person assigned as the 'vote counter', but I doubt I would bother doing that. Did I mention that I tend to resist change